Spaniards, Portuguese Protest Cuts

By

Dan Molinski,

Richard Boudreaux and

Patricia Kowsmann

Updated Sept. 15, 2012 3:32 p.m. ET

MADRID—Tens of thousands of people marched in Spain and Portugal on Saturday to protest sharp cuts in public spending, the latest display of resistance to crisis measures that European leaders are demanding of heavily indebted euro-zone countries to shore up the common currency.

Demonstrators converged on Madrid from all over Spain a day after the country's finance minister announced that new measures were imminent. The marches in Portugal, in more than 40 cities, were by far the largest in a country that had calmly...